I never understood those people that constantly revisited holiday destinations. What’s the point and what a wasted opportunity I’d say, going back to the same place and doing the same things. I am of course full of it and writing this sat on a homeward-bound flight from Abu Dhabi to London, my third trip there in two years. As my friend and Las Vegas (20+ Visits) travel companion never tires of saying “We’re all creatures of habit”. Travelling to Abu Dhabi the first time wasn’t any particular desire of mine if I was being candid and I’m all for being candid in both life and photography. It has to be said though that I admire the UAE. I’ve mentioned in previous blogposts that I find their tolerance of others incredible. Never more so than when the Call To Prayer from the Grand Mosque echoes out across the city all the way to my table or bar and the waiter informs you that “It’s Happy Hour Sir, and would Sir like another discounted beer”. Yes Sir would....discounted or not! The people that I have met there have always been exceptionally courteous and pleasant.
In this blogpost I’m going to keep the words to a minimum and upload what is essentially my holiday snaps, albeit with a Street Photography slant to some of them. I’ll simply divide it into four sections with a grid of some sample images; Departures. Random at the Hotel. Warner Bros. and Beach. I took a lot of shots, but for your sake as much as mine I’ve picked just a few.
I’ve already written in previous blogposts about some of the attractions; the aforementioned Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi Do’s & Dont’s and The Louvre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi Two. I’ve used up most of the cultural draws. Our main reason for visiting is because our children are the same as all children in that they love being by the beach or pool and they can play happily all day in guaranteed weather, we’re in a desert after all; First two days cloudy, third rain! This suited me just fine because high temeperatures (35C to 40C) with burning sunshine just don’t sit with me the way they did when I was a younger man. Another thing that I’ve no particular interest for is theme parks and yet I’ve been to a few over the years. I dislike rides intensely, the Teacup and Saucers ride at Disney that the little toddlers go on makes me fear for my life! Anyway, because of the day of rain we went to an indoor theme park, Warner Bros. World, suffice to say that I somehow managed to end up sitting on the Tom & Jerry ride, I came off sweating, either because I wanted to be sick or was suffering a mild heart attack, Louis screamed to make it stop mummy, Amélie sat speechless clawing her fingernails into my leg and Sam (my wife) seemed delighted by it….all I can say is never ever again! Here we go then;
Departures
Airports, as we’ve discussed many times before, are great places to make photos and kills the boredom -
Random At The Hotel
You’re pretty much stuck at the Hotel on these kind of holidays. Most of these are self explanatory. There’s usually something to see or photograph though. I strolled along and came across a fashion designer taking photos of her design and model. I chatted for a moment with them and they offered me to take a shot, a couple of clicks and it came out okay -
Warner Bros. World
An indoor theme park, purposefully built because of the searing heat, on this occasion though it gave shelter from the rain. The children did some kind of superhero training and later Louis told the Riddler that he preferred “Baddies” to the Good Guys…”better watch out for Batman then” was his reply! Of course this is the boy who whilst everyone who’s interested in Harry Potter wants to be in Gryffindor house, he on the other hand insists on wearing a cap emblazoned with ‘Slytherin” the house of Lord Voldemort!
The Beach
Again self explanatory. Some of my family and some attempts at Street Photography -
And that’s it. A few things that caught my eye, a holiday documented and preserved on this blog. As a side note, I didn’t change my lens once, kept with the 35mm for six days. That highly expensive Noctilux 50mm as usual just sat in my camera bag, it could be going up for sale apart from tomorrow there’s a wedding to photograph and I’ll no doubt use it for some portraits.
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 35mm Lens fitted.
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